Hi
I'm quite new to all this, but like many here have found so many "wholesalers" which after checking I wouldn't touch with a barge poll.
I thought a thread containing details about performing checks on these might be useful?
I personally.
Look for Trading Address
Look for Contact Telephone Number (better if standard and not 08--)
Realistic Prices
If they claim to be a LTD company, I search the companieshouse records.
I then perform a Whois hoping to match the details with that of the site.
Next if a Postcode is avaliable I Multimap to see if there based in an Commercial/Industrial Area... I've nothing against home based businesses but the chances are worst.
Next comes a Search on the
WayBack Machine(
http://www.waybackmachine.org) - this gives a good indication of how long the website has been operating in it's present state.
Now if all this seems in order... I email them asking
Are you VAT registered and if so what is your VAT number
Is your business registered? , and if so under what trading name & number (Depending if I already know this or not)
How long has [Company] been trading?
Any reputal company in my eye's can provide stuff like Price/Stock Lists, if they can't i assume they don't have proper systems in place and who knows what there really like to order from.
If they reply to the email the IP address from it is then checked using Visual Route and hopefully unless I know otherwise it should come from the country I'm expecting.
Now how am I doing? .... I've not been stung yet but if anyone knows any other ways of "online" checking I'd be very happy to hear them.
Martin